As the team stood frozen before the gruesome sight, their faces twisted in shock and disgust. The captain's voice cut through the silence, calm but edged with urgency.
"Everyone, investigate. I want the cause of death identified now! Whatever did this might still be nearby, and hostile. Even if this thing was taken down by another Resonance Holder, we can't assume they're allies. Stay alert."
The captain adjusted his glasses, scanning the grotesque scene once more before issuing orders.
"Vaera, Lucen — examine the body. See if the Crystallized Echo is still intact… assuming it's even there. Sereth and I will patrol the perimeter for traces of whatever did this."
He paused, his voice softening just enough to show concern beneath his command. "Stay alert."
The group exchanged uneasy glances. It wasn't like their captain to sound… rattled. For a brief moment, they all caught it... That faint tremor in his tone, the way his eyes darted around the shadows. But none dared to speak it aloud.
As Sereth followed the captain deeper into the treeline, Vaera and Lucen approached the reeking carcass. The stench hit them like a wall, thick and rancid, and both fought hard not to retch as they crouched beside the mangled flesh of the Revolture.
Lucen clicked his tongue, glaring up at the grotesque mass of flesh impaled among the branches.
"How the hell are we supposed to get that big lump of sh*t down from there?!"
Vaera sighed, brushing a strand of blue hair behind her ear. "Bring it down, obviously. Use your Resonated Echo." Her tone carried that faint edge... Polite on the surface, but quietly mocking.
"Tsk… I don't need you to remind me," he muttered.
Vaera's smile twitched as she thought to herself, Then why even ask, idiot? He could provoke a saint without even trying…
Lucen gripped his greatsword, his expression sharpening as the faint hum of Resonance coursed through his veins. The air around him seemed to bend ever so slightly, dust lifting in a strange, invisible pull.
He bent his knees, then—
Thwump!
—with a burst of compressed force, he launched upward, shooting through the canopy like a bullet. Meeting the height of the impaled creature, he twisted his body midair, gripping the sword overhead in a two-handed stance.
As his blade met the monster's torso, there was a violent shift... As if the air itself recoiled. The impact didn't slice; it drove, carrying a burst of redirected momentum that tore through the branches and hurled the carcass downward in a brutal crash.
KRSHHHHHH!
Lucen landed beside it, the ground trembling beneath the weight.
Vaera approached, pinching her nose as the stench worsened. "You will handle the wounds," she said, kneeling beside the monster's body. "I'll dig out the Crystallized Echo."
Lucen smirked, flashing a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am!"
Vaera's eye twitched. Arghhh, this guy! I swear, one day...!
---
The two went about their tasks, the stench thick enough to make even breathing a chore. Barely a minute passed before Lucen frowned, crouching near the mangled corpse.
"Huh… that's odd," he muttered. "There's no other wounds except the one we gave it on the face, and the punctures from those trees. No blade cuts, no burn marks, no ability traces either."
Vaera sighed, slipping on her gloves and mask. Her dagger hung loosely by her side as she knelt beside him to verify his claim. After a moment of inspecting, her brows furrowed.
"Strange…" she murmured. "It can't be that it died from falling, can it?"
Lucen straightened, glancing toward the distance. "That… may not be too far off."
He kicked off the ground, soaring lightly through the canopy for a better look. Through the moonlight filtering between leaves, he spotted it — a small mountain ahead, its cliffside half-collapsed.
Landing back beside Vaera, he pointed north. "There's a cliff up ahead, looks like it recently gave way."
Vaera crossed her arms, disbelief written all over her face. "That makes it even stranger... Revoltures may not be intelligent, but they do sense danger. There's no way it just walked off a cliff!"
Lucen knelt again, brushing away some damp soil and pointing at the scattered stones nearby. "Maybe not… but look closely. Small rock fragments... Still fresh. It could've slipped when the cliff gave out."
Vaera stayed silent, her eyes narrowing at the carcass. The thought that something else might have caused this hovered unspoken between them.
---
While Lucen and Vaera examined the carcass, the captain and Sereth moved in a slow perimeter sweep, boots pressing into the damp soil as minutes passed.
Sereth broke the silence first. "Captain, we haven't found a single trace. No footprints, no Void Residue Remnants… nothing. It's like whatever killed that thing just vanished."
The captain stopped beside a half-broken trunk, gloved hand brushing the bark as he knelt to inspect the ground. His expression stayed calm, almost too calm.
"Hmm. Then it's as I suspected." He straightened, adjusting his glasses with that habitual motion of his. "It didn't die from any battle wound."
Sereth blinked. "Wha—what do you mean, Captain?"
The captain's tone remained steady, analytical. "Based on the angle of impact and the pattern of debris scattered here, it wasn't killed by any weapon or ability. It died from… nature itself. Most likely, a fall—from a high cliff, perhaps."
He said in a proud, almost teasing tone, "The two should've figured this out by now."
Sereth frowned, scanning the surroundings again. "A cliff? But we're deep in the forest. That would mean…"
The captain nodded slightly. "Exactly. There's terrain we haven't mapped yet. Something—or someone—drove it there."
Sereth and the captain traced the terrain toward the supposed cliff, eyes sharp for any path that didn't involve scaling bare rock. The further they went, the more unfamiliar the surroundings became... Until the captain noticed something off and adjusted his silver rimmed glasses.
"This area isn't on the military's
map as we expected...", he muttered.
Unease settled between them, but they pressed on. For ten minutes they moved through uneven ground and dense undergrowth, scanning for any climbable slope. Finally, they spotted a narrow trail winding upward, half-hidden behind fallen branches. They exchanged a brief nod and began their ascent.
The climb wasn't long, but it was tense. Every step carried the weight of uncertainty until, at last, they pulled themselves over the edge and stood atop the small mountain... Breathing hard, and staring at whatever awaited them next.
And what they saw stunned them both.
The mountaintop was a mess! Trees snapped like twigs, the ground torn and crushed as if something massive had slammed into it. Scattered debris stretched in every direction, and faint streaks of blood stained the dirt, already fading, slowly being swallowed by the earth.
Sereth's eyes widened. "This… this doesn't look like an accidental fall. It's like it chased something or someone here."
The captain crouched, brushing his fingers across the cracked soil. The signd of impact was still faintly there as if he could feel it through his gloves. His expression hardened behind the lenses of his glasses.
"Correct… this wasn't just a fall. Whatever happened to this place came with plan—deliberate or not."
Sereth gulped, scanning the silent devastation around them. "Then, Captain… what could possibly bring down something that big?"
The captain adjusted his glasses, his tone measured but grim. "The correct question should be—what lured that Revolture here." He knelt, tracing a finger along a faint streak of dried crimson on the ground. "Based on the trail, this blood isn't from the creature. I can't confirm if it's human, but it looks like it. Clinical tests would be needed to be sure… Even with my ability, I'd still need proper equipment."
Sereth's eyes narrowed as realization struck. "Then that means… the Revolture was chasing something. And that 'something' was bleeding."
The captain nodded slowly, his expression darkening. "Correct again. For it to risk luring a half-rank-two beast into a fall like this, it must've been cornered—or wounded badly enough to lose the advantage in combat."
Sereth looked around, the forest eerily silent except for the faint hum of the wind. "Then, Captain… whatever it was—it might still be out there."
The captain's eyes gleamed behind his lenses. "Not necessarily, we're probably standing right where it made its last stand."
Sereth frowned, glancing around the ruined clearing. "Last stand? But, Captain… there's not even a corpse. Only this trail of blood leading to—"
He froze mid-sentence, eyes widening as the realization hit. "Wait… it couldn't be, right?"
The captain's gaze followed the same trail, expression unreadable behind his glasses. "We can't rule it out," he said evenly. "If our assumption's correct, then whatever it was—jumped with the Revolture."
Sereth's voice dropped, barely above a whisper. "It took the monster down with it…"
The captain nodded. "Most likely. And considering the impact, there's no chance it came out unscathed." He straightened, brushing dirt from his coat, tone firm but calm. "Contact Vaera and Lucen. Tell them to assist in the search after they're done with their investigation. If that thing's still alive, it can't have gone far—certainly not in its condition."
Sereth quickly activated his wrist comm, muttering, "Understood, Captain." He stole one last glance over the shattered trees and crushed ground.
A faint chill ran down his spine.
Whatever had fought that monster… wasn't human.
---
Back at the carcass, Lucen and Vaera were knee-deep in their grim task when a faint ringing tone buzzed from their wrist communicators. Both flinched... The sound was jarring in the heavy silence of the forest.
Lucen quickly tapped his device. "This is Lucen, go ahead."
Sereth's voice crackled through the line. "It's Sereth. The captain figured you two already confirmed it, the Revolture died from a fall... But captain also figured out that it's not natural. It was lured into falling. Whoever or whatever set that up knew exactly what they were doing."
Lucen blinked, exchanging glances with Vaera. "Wait, the captain already knew?"
As Sereth went on, explaining more of their findings, both of them froze... Realization dawning. The captain... He was acknowledging their work.
Vaera, expression still cold as ever, felt her heart skip slightly.
He… praised us? Indirectly?
Lucen's grin twitched upward.
Heh. That's basically a compliment from the captain! Damn right we figured it out first.
Vaera side-eyed him, sensing his smugness radiating off the air.
Oh, great. There he goes again, acting like he solved world hunger.
The call ended with a short click. Silence returned, only broken by the buzz of flies and the faint hum of wind through leaves.
Shaking off their thoughts, the two quickly returned to the grim task at hand... Dissecting what remained of the Revolture, their movements sharper now, driven by both urgency and a subtle pride that their captain trusted them to handle it.
After some time, both had their brows furrowed in disbelief as they pried deeper into the Revolture's decaying flesh.
Lucen grunted, wiping sweat and grime from his forehead. "This doesn't make sense… no matter where I cut, there's nothing. Not even a shard of a Crystallized Echo."
Vaera's expression hardened, her gloved hands slick with blood as she sifted through the remains. "That's impossible. Even low-ranked Revoltures leave an Echo behind when they die."
She paused, her knife scraping against something solid. "Wait… what's this?"
Lucen leaned closer, expecting a crystal, but froze the moment the object came into view.
It wasn't a crystal. It was an arm.
A small, human-like arm. Torn off at the shoulder, pale and bloodless... Its size closer to that of a child than any adult.
Lucen's voice cracked slightly, disbelief replacing his usual cocky tone. "What the hell… is that what I think it is?"
Vaera swallowed hard, her usual composure faltering. "It... it can't be. There's no way a child can venture out into this restricted forest, the gate is even heavily guarded by the military! Unless they are a refugee from the southern tribes...."
Lucen immediately refuted, "At least refugees move in groups. The evidence doesn't add up — there's no way a large tribe from the southwestern territories could flee this far without leaving a single trace behind."
Both of them stared at the dismembered limb in silence, the putrid stench suddenly feeling colder, heavier.
Lucen took an uneasy step back, muttering, "Captain's not gonna like this."